ScienceDaily: Top Technology News

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• Physics on a plane: Helium crystals grown in zero gravity
• New factor that could limit life of hybrid and electric car batteries revealed
• Mariner 2's encounter with Venus: NASA celebrates 50 years of planetary exploration
• Cassini spots mini Nile River on Saturn's moon Titan
• Seven primitive galaxies at the dawn of time
• X-ray laser takes aim at cosmic mystery
• Study paves way to design drugs aimed at multiple protein targets at once
• New geometries: Researchers create new shapes of artificial microcompartments
• Ultra-short laser pulses control chemical processes
• Astronomers discover 'missing link' of black holes
• Was life inevitable? New paper pieces together metabolism's beginnings
• New method to understand superconductors
• Geminid meteors set to light up winter sky
• Photosynthesis: Mysterious enzyme structure solved
• Micro sensors help underwater robots swim like fish
• Social ties help drive user content generation that leads to online ad revenue growth
• Basketball as a statistical network

Physics on a plane: Helium crystals grown in zero gravity Posted: 12 Dec 2012 05:56 PM PST Physicists from Japan have taken to the skies to grow crystals in zero gravity. Helium crystals were grown using high pressures, extremely low temperatures (0.6K/-272°C) and by splashing them with a superfluid -- a state of quantum matter which behaves like a fluid but has zero viscosity, meaning it has complete resistance to stress. Superfluids can also flow through extremely tiny gaps without any friction.

New factor that could limit life of hybrid and electric car batteries revealed Posted: 12 Dec 2012 05:48 PM PST A new study of the batteries commonly used in hybrid and electric-only cars has revealed an unexpected factor that could limit the performance of batteries currently on the road.

Mariner 2's encounter with Venus: NASA celebrates 50 years of planetary exploration Posted: 12 Dec 2012 01:46 PM PST Fifty years ago on a mid-December day, NASA's Mariner 2 spacecraft sailed close to the shrouded planet Venus, marking the first time any spacecraft had ever successfully made a close-up study of another planet. The flyby, 36 million miles (58 million kilometers) away from Earth, gave America its first bona fide space "first" after five years in which the Soviet Union led with several space exploration milestones. Designed and built by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., the successful Mariner 2 spacecraft ushered in a new era of solar system exploration.

Cassini spots mini Nile River on Saturn's moon Titan Posted: 12 Dec 2012 01:40 PM PST Scientists with NASA's Cassini mission have spotted what appears to be a miniature, extraterrestrial likeness of Earth's Nile River: a river valley on Saturn's moon Titan that stretches more than 200 miles (400 kilometers) from its "headwaters" to a large sea. It is the first time images have revealed a river system this vast and in such high resolution anywhere other than Earth.

Seven primitive galaxies at the dawn of time Posted: 12 Dec 2012 11:18 AM PST Astronomers have uncovered a previously unseen population of seven primitive galaxies that formed more than 13 billion years ago, when the universe was less than 3 percent of its present age. The deepest images to date from Hubble yield the first statistically robust sample of galaxies that tells how abundant they were close to the era when galaxies first formed.

X-ray laser takes aim at cosmic mystery Posted: 12 Dec 2012 10:41 AM PST Scientists have used powerful X-rays to study and measure, in atomic detail, a key process at work in extreme plasmas like those found in stars, the rims of black holes and other massive cosmic phenomena.

Study paves way to design drugs aimed at multiple protein targets at once Posted: 12 Dec 2012 10:40 AM PST Pharmaceutical chemists had suggested that the objective of a drug hitting multiple targets simultaneously is impossible and unlikely to succeed. A new study shows how to efficiently and effectively make designer drugs that can do that.

New geometries: Researchers create new shapes of artificial microcompartments Posted: 12 Dec 2012 10:09 AM PST Researchers have figured out how to mimic the different shapes of microcompartments found in nature. The findings could have implications in materials research, targeted drug delivery, and more.

Ultra-short laser pulses control chemical processes Posted: 12 Dec 2012 10:08 AM PST Specially shaped laser pulses can be used to change the state of electrons in a molecule. This process only takes several attoseconds -- but it can initiate another, much slower process: The splitting of the molecule into two parts. Laser pulses can be used to initiate or suppress chemical reactions in a controlled way.

Astronomers discover 'missing link' of black holes Posted: 12 Dec 2012 10:07 AM PST The discovery of a binging black hole in our nearest neighbouring galaxy, Andromeda, has shed new light on some of the brightest X-ray sources seen in other galaxies, according to a new article.

Was life inevitable? New paper pieces together metabolism's beginnings Posted: 12 Dec 2012 10:07 AM PST A new synthesis by two researchers offers a coherent picture of how metabolism, and thus all life, arose. The study offers new insights into how the complex chemistry of metabolism cobbled itself together, the likelihood of life emerging and evolving as it did on Earth, and the chances of finding life elsewhere.

New method to understand superconductors Posted: 12 Dec 2012 08:10 AM PST Researchers have devised a new method to understand the processes that happen when atoms cool which could lead to new materials for superconducting power grids and widespread use of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).

Geminid meteors set to light up winter sky Posted: 12 Dec 2012 08:10 AM PST On the evening of December 13 and the morning of 14 December, skywatchers across the world will be looking up as the Geminid meteor shower reaches its peak, in potentially one of the best night sky events of the year.

Photosynthesis: Mysterious enzyme structure solved Posted: 12 Dec 2012 06:28 AM PST Scientists have solved a long-standing puzzle in photosynthesis research. With the aid of quantum chemistry they were able to provide unexpected insight into the properties of the oxygen evolving complex (OEC). The OEC is the catalyst in plants that splits water using sunlight in order to build carbohydrates, thus powering all life on earth. Its precise structure, which was showing enigmatic spectroscopic behavior, could now finally be solved with the aid of quantum chemistry.

Micro sensors help underwater robots swim like fish Posted: 12 Dec 2012 06:26 AM PST Scientists have invented a 'sense-ational' device, similar to a string of 'feelers' found on the bodies of the Blind Cave Fish, which enables the fish to sense their surrounding and so navigate easily.

Social ties help drive user content generation that leads to online ad revenue growth Posted: 11 Dec 2012 08:31 AM PST Study reveals that networking sites can drive advertising revenue by encouraging the density of social ties, or boosting the level of friendship or social connections between users.

Basketball as a statistical network Posted: 11 Dec 2012 08:27 AM PST What started out as a project to teach undergraduate students about network analysis, turned into an in-depth study of whether it was possible to analyze a National Basketball Association (NBA) basketball team's strategic interactions as a network. Researchers discovered it is possible to quantify both a team's cohesion and communication structure.

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